After 15-year absence, Sarah Burton made her return at the London Fashion Week with her Alexander McQueen women haute couture collection.
Once upon a time, twenty years ago, Sarah Burton started working for Alexander McQueen at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminister for the 1997 Spring Show La Poupée. Burton has come a long way from working backstage for Alexander McQueen to designing the wedding dress for the Duchess of Cambridge and becoming Alexander McQueen’s successor after his death, six years ago.
The location change from Paris to London after all these years was not due to sentiment but rather to the fact that she was 38-week pregnant and traveling is not viable. However, there are rumors that Burton may be taking over Raf Simmons vacant post at Dior… These speculations were hard to ignore at the London Fashion Week when her new collections lacked the prominent Alexander McQueen’s qualities of macabre, intense, dark, unusual artistic and historical references. Her work rather featured the perfect clean tailoring, feminine, red carpet gowns and romantic which one would associate with Dior.
We have to admit that her collection still had the subtleties of McQueen’s signature features of whimsical motifs and structured suiting. The extravagant show opened with Natalie Westling strutting down the ramp draped in a black coat that was adorned with butterfly, horse and watch embellishment.
Photo Credit: Indigital
“Women’s obsessions, and flowers that bloom at night,”- Sarah Burton
We can’t help ourselves from comparing the first McQueen show in London to this one. It has come from a black model sloshing through the water in shackles to the women strutting on misty curtain divided wooden floor wearing stunning pieces designed by Burton. This new couture is a great reflection of how far the fashion line has come since the passing of its creator. Burton managed to make it her own while keeping the Alexander McQueen magic.